Philosophy Adventure — Pre-Socratics

Learn how to Write Skillfully, Think Critically, & Speak Articulately

Philosophy Adventure™ is designed to help students 6th-12th grade cultivate and defend a biblical worldview by teaching them how to write skillfully, think critically, and speak articulately as they explore the history of ideas.

Description

JOIN THE ADVENTURE!

Philosophy Adventure™ is designed to help students 6th-12th grade cultivate and defend a biblical worldview by teaching them how to write skillfully, think critically, and speak articulately as they explore the history of ideas.

DO YOU NEED to teach advanced writing and speaking skills?

DO YOU WANT your students equipped to discern truth as ungodly messages bombard them?

DO YOU WONDER how to cover all they need academically as well as practically?

Philosophy Adventure may be your solution!

Engaging ♦ Easy to use ♦ Empowering!

This curriculum is much more than simply a study of philosophy.

Students can earn credit in:

▪ English Composition

▪ World History / Geography

▪ Speech / Communications

▪ Logic / Critical Thinking

The world is changing!

Change can be baffling and disturbing. But once you learn the origins of ideas, you can begin to “connect the dots” and understand current events with new clarity. Throughout history, great minds have grappled with these universal questions:

“Where did we come from and why are we here?”

“Why is there evil, death and suffering in the world?”

“Is there hope for our future?”

How we answer those questions determines what we will value and how we will behave. Philosophy is the discipline that explores those questions.

Since critical thinking and communication skills can be taught using a wide variety of content, why not choose content worthy of our investment? Why not embark on the Philosophy Adventure™ and meet the real rulers of this world?

“In all my years of research, seldom have I picked up a book on philosophy and felt that I couldn’t put it down. That changed when I encountered Philosophy Adventure…. I highly recommend Philosophy Adventure to students and educators!”—Linda Lacour Hobar, The Mystery of History

“The Philosophy Adventure: Pre-Socratics course makes the study of philosophy very accessible, even to students as young as sixth grade. The worldview component provides the balance so often lacking in other philosophy courses. Farrell has clearly spent many years developing and presenting this course material to be able to present such a comprehensive presentation!”—Cathy Duffy, 102 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum

“Stacy Farrell does a good job of introducing young people (6th-12th grade) to the world of ideas — ideas that are crucial to understand because they continue to shape our world and the way people think.”—Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth, Finding Truth, The Soul of Science, Saving Leonardo

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Do you prefer print or digital? All four options include digital editions of the Reader, Student Workbook, and Teacher’s Resources:

DIGITAL TEACHER’S RESOURCES ON CD: The Teacher’s Resources includes keys to the quizzes, tests, and mapping assignments, timelines, and “at-a-glance” instructions designed to simplify your role as instructor.

DIGITAL TEACHER’S RESOURCES ON CD: The Teacher’s Resources includes keys to the quizzes, tests, and mapping assignments, timelines, and “at-a-glance” instructions designed to simplify your role as instructor.

DIGITAL TEACHER’S RESOURCES ON CD: The Teacher’s Resources includes keys to the quizzes, tests, and mapping assignments, timelines, and “at-a-glance” instructions designed to simplify your role as instructor.

TEACHER’S RESOURCES DIGITAL DOWNLOAD: The Teacher’s Resources includes keys to the quizzes, tests, and mapping assignments, timelines, and “at-a-glance” instructions designed to simplify your role as instructor.

15 reviews for Philosophy Adventure — Pre-Socratics

Rated 5 out of 5

Jennifer–July 13, 2013

I love learning along with my children. I enjoy seeing the timelines showing the Biblical and political contemporaries of the philosophers. The Bible references really help us to imagine the lives of philosophers and people in context.

Elizabeth read the first two lessons and completed those writing assignments in one day. Shh, I didn’t tell her that one lesson takes a week! She absolutely loves it and her favorite thing is quizzing me on the philosophers and trivia from her reading.

I am amazed by the variety of subjects in one volume – math, science, literature, history, geography. The research that must have gone into this astounds me! I plan to study along with my daughter. It’s just fascinating. And I’ll be able to answer her trivia questions!

Liz and I both really like the scholarly quotes from literature and history and the Bible and the kind but humorous narration. It’s encouraging and motivating to want to try our best. I especially hope to encourage my daughter Liz to public speaking. I know she is gifted in this, but needs training and I think this is perfect for her.

Liz loves the Anatomy of a Biographical Narrative. She loves lists and checklists and enjoys the layout of the Reader. We both enjoy the format of the Reader and it’s very easy to navigate and read the different sections.

And she’s earning high school credits!

Rated 5 out of 5

Michelle–July 14, 2013

I have two aspects of this course that I just love! My favorite part of each chapter comes at the end where students get to contrast the thinking of the philosopher with the thinking of the Bible. What a great way to help teach our kids discernment! My favorite challenge in this course is the one for students to memorize the book of Philippians as they complete the course. What an awesome challenge, with eternal rewards! And what a great way for kids to renew their minds. Like I said, I love it!

This is fun. We started with a two weeks per philosopher pace, and we did not like that. We switched so we are doing “a philosopher of the month” instead, and we are able to still do other schoolwork, plus enjoy our time learning the amazing content included in the text. Even my writing-phobic kids are able to do the writing assignments, as this is not rushing them too much.

The kids love that the book is addressing things like “According to a popular survey, many people claim they fear public speaking more than death.” They appreciate that this isn’t telling them to just buck up and do it. The book acknowledges that speaking can be scary, and eases you into it.

It just has a gentle approach in general. My 11th grader seems to think that this is “too easy” to be high school level, yet he acknowledges that he is learning a lot. I think that is a ringing endorsement… because to me, philosophy has always been this big, scary thing that you have to be really smart to “do” or to understand. Philosophy Adventure: Pre-Socratics allows even my 12 year old to “do” philosophy and to really learn something.

My only complaint about the program is that there isn’t a Volume 2. Maybe someday.

Disclaimer: as part of the Philosophy Adventure Launch Team, I received a copy of Philosophy Adventure in exchange for an honest review on my blog. I was not required to post a review here.

Rated 5 out of 5

Marcy Crabtree–July 16, 2014

With Philosophy Adventure, your student (or you!) will take a trip back in time, studying the lives of 8 pre-Socratic thinkers, learning about the time and place in which they lived and what they believed. Some of these philosophers include: Thales, Pythagoras, and Heraclitus. Lesson assignments explore how to contrast the beliefs of each philosopher against a biblical worldview and how to express these contrasting views in writing, thought and speech.

Whether you use Philosophy Adventure as a core subject for your high school student or as a jumping off point for interesting discussion in developing and defending a worldview with your middle schoolers, I believe you will be impressed with the depth and breadth of this curriculum.

My son and I reviewed Philosophy Adventure. This program gives students an in-depth look at the ancient philosophers with a Biblical worldview. The Reader provides background information on the philosopher and his times. You also learn about their ideas and what went into forming those ideas. As you work through each philosopher you look for ways to stretch your skills in writing and speaking. It also helps the student learn to think critically and with discernment. Philosophy Adventure comes in a number of formats. Our family reviewed the digital download version. All the versions come with a Reader which is the main text for the program, a student workbook, and teacher resources.

Why study Philosophy?
What is Philosophy?
Who is Pythagorus? Wasn’t he some math guy?

These are some of the questions that Home School Adventure Co. helps to answer with their homeschool philosophy curriculum, Philosophy Adventure. We discovered that the Reader was much more than a nicely written text on philosophy~ it also encompasses a writing program with instruction in critical thinking, speech writing and creative writing, as well as journaling. Definitely more of an adventure than if it were strictly philosophy.

Philosophy is a subject that I did not feel confident tackling alone so I was so glad to find Philosophy Adventure! I love Stacy Farrell’s writing style. I can tell that she has a heart for God and equipping the next generation to take a stand for their beliefs. She is also equipping parents to educate their children. She is a homeschooling mom who is going through the trenches the same as we are and I felt as though she was taking me by the hand and guiding me as well as my student.

When I first received the textbook and student workbook to review, I was a little nervous. Philosophy? The word brings to mind dusty bookshelves, deep theological texts, and eyes struggling to stay open under the weight of heavy eyelids.

I couldn’t have been more wonderfully surprised.

The book skillfully takes us through the lives of eight philosophers: Thales, Pythagoras, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Protagoras, and Democritus. But the text does far more than simply recount historical facts. In the introduction, author Stacy Farrell shares, “what we learned when we delved deeply into the study of the history of philosophy is too significant to sleep through. In fact, the future of freedom may depend upon how many of us wake up to the world of ideas and seek to discern and defend truth.”

Why is understanding the history of philosophy so important? Do any of these questions sound relevant to today’s life?

*Where did the universe originate?
*Was the universe created or has it always existed?
*What happens to a person when they die?
*Is there more to life than the physical body?
*Is the spirit reincarnated into other living creatures?
*How does the character of a group’s leader impact his followers?
*Could there be one omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent God?
*Who or what can solve the mysteries of life?
*Can truth be known or is all of life an endless string of confusing contradictions?
*What happens when you try to blend science and myth?
*Is it possible to know God exists?

A month and a half ago, we received the digital version of Philosophy Adventure, by Stacy Farrell, from Home School Adventure Co. A great deal of time and effort was put into producing this curriculum as can be seen by the wealth of information contained within it, as well as the numerous activities that have been created for the student. Because Philosophy Adventure not only teaches about the philosophers but also teaches writing skills, critical thinking skills, and speaking skills, I wanted to do this review with my high schooler.

The philosophers discussed in this curriculum are not your typical such as Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates, although they are mentioned. The philosophers we learned about were Thales, Pythagoras, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Protagoras, and Democritus. Some of the things learned about the philosophers were the title they were given such as Thales being called the “Father of Western Philosophy,” a famous quote ascribed to them, and then as much of their history as could be found through various sources.

For us ~ we are really enjoying this curriculum and will continue using it. We are using it as a supplement to our current material. We LOVE that there is not a lot of reading associated but there is a lot of thought required. It seems to be a “simple program” but honestly there is A LOT packed in to it. We love how it covers so many different subjects at one time and how the learning is presented in an interesting way. For this review, we printed everything we used because it was easier for us but you could easily read the material on the computer and then type in the answers for the student workbook on the computer. You can read my entire review here: http://guidinglighths.com/schoolhouse-review-home-school-adventure-hsreviews/

Rated 5 out of 5

Amanda H–July 16, 2014

Every student, no matter what they decide to do in their future will need to be able to write and speak in a professional manner. With the ways of the computer, we are less of the actual writing process…why should they, the computer will check it for them. I have seen it with my own son. With the Philosophy Adventure, I am not only going to be able to help my son (and the littles when it is their turn) learn how to think, write and speak in a way that he (they) will need to have if they want to succeed in life, and that is something I do want for them. Not only will my kids be learning about reading, writing and thinking, but I am able to add the foundation of history and the biblical worldview.

I love that so many topics are covered in one class. I love that this very aspect alone teaches them that learning is part of our lives and not just part of our classroom. This teaches history, geography, memory skills, writing, speech, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and research skills. It challenges them to think, walks them through logical communication, and helps them create timelines, maps, and beautiful notebooks.

I love the flexibility of the program. It could easily be done as an intensive course in 8-12 weeks, or spread out over the course of a year. You could choose to concentrate mainly on the historical aspect or dive deep into the writing assignments. There’s plenty of food for thought and discussion.

I love the way the author speaks directly to the student as a peer and with true empathy (“I’ve been where you’ve been”). The Write, Think, and Speak sections have really bolstered my son’s self-confidence and I can tell that he enjoys the writing assignments (even if he still groans some). I do think that some of the writing assignments could be more focused, but this is an area that can easily be adjusted.

Honestly, I also love Philosophy Adventure’s beauty—it just looks good with its lovely graphics, color highlights—it looks like quality, professional work, there’s not even a hint of homespun-ness about it.

Stacy Farrell has done an excellent job researching and creating Philosophy Adventure—I can’t wait to see what she produces next.

Stacey has made a relatively tough subject very user-friendly with visually appealing pages, clear activity directions and text that isn’t overly “intellectual.” At the same time, though, your children will peruse several primary-source quotes and gain a large vocabulary – on top of diving deep into philosophy!

What I like best are the writing, thinking and speaking activities that give students a chance to assimilate what they’ve learned in very thoughtful and meaningful ways. This is the point of philosophy in the real world!

My 2 daughters are doing Philosophy Adventure and enjoying it thoroughly. They are 12 & 14 years old. We went through the Philosophers and completed them – then they are going through and completing the journal after. It will take approx 1 semester (or less) to finish. It was easy to complete.

I also echo the sentiment that I wish there was another level to continue on through it! If one is written – let me know – I would be glad to pilot it so we could follow up with it soon!

Have we forgotten whose we are?

In this “Age of Tolerance,” Christians are in danger of forgetting (or never learning) what distinguishes a Christian worldview from other worldviews. The Mere Christianity Critical Analysis Journal is a powerful tool to strengthen critical thinking while cultivating a biblical worldview.

What does it mean to love Him with all your mind?

The Bible is banned in many countries. Countless believers have sacrificed their freedom—and many, their lives—to spread the message of God’s love and salvation contained within its pages. Are we exercising our freedom responsibly?

Related products

It’s never too early to introduce your littles ones to the world of ideas!

Do you have older students taking the Philosophy Adventure? You don’t have to leave younger siblings behind! With coloring pages, copywork, maps, and more — Philosopher Notebook Pages makes it easy for young students to document their discoveries.
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Meet Stacy Farrell of Home School Adventure Co. as a featured speaker at the regional homeschool events of the year in Greenville, SC, Fort Worth, TX, Cincinnati, OH, Ontario, CA, and St. Charles, MO. For more information, visit www.greathomeschoolconventions.com. Dozens of speakers, hundreds of workshops, huge exhibit hall, encouraging, equipping, fellowship, and FUN!